[Cruiserdrew]

Originally Posted by Randy88FJ62

Won’t more droop be bad as it would cause the steering to come close to the springs? I didn’t know it wasn’t an 80 series arm. How much for your spare Drew?

Didn’t know the armor was for mini trucks but it makes sense since MC’s business is mostly pickups. The other question arises, do I need differential armor in front? Who has had a problem ruining gears due to smashing the front diff cover?

New brake lines ran above sounds like the only way to go for safety. Eliminating the backing plate also sounds like a no brainer.

Just another thought: Has anyone scrapped the leaf spring mounts altogether and drilled two holes through the frame? I know some have done this on one side for a shackle reversal but what about doing for both to keep the SOA low. I agree with you Cruiserdrew and I’ll probably stick with stock shackles to keep the SOA low.

Any other good mods to keep the SOA low? That is a priority for me. Pucker factor has already gotten to me on 31’s with stock springs so I can imagine it will only get worse with bigger tires and a higher truck. Rolling is not on my list for a few more years since I don’t want to chop the truck up yet.

If you use my spare 80 Pittman, it will need to be re-bored for the taper of the 80 tie rod end. It is correctly bored for 80 series drag link ends.(Tie rod ends and drag link ends have a different taper) I don't know if it would need to be bigger or smaller. I used GM 1 ton which were bigger and so it needed to be bored bigger. Ask Luke Porter at 4x4 Labs and he'll know if that modification is possible for 80 TREs.

I have differential armor on the front of my FJ40. You can use 1/2 of a 10 inch weldable pipe cap. Super beefy, strong, cheap. Do a search as Pat Kennedy used to sell the 1/2 pipe caps and did a nice job with them. You could cut your own with a plasma cutter. Diff armor in the front is good to have. The axle housing is just over 1/8 thick, so not really enough to protect the goodies in big rocks. There is a funny story involving FirstToy (FJC section moderator) and testing out the diff armor on the front of my FJ40 that I will tell you at next year's SnT.

Lot's of people have frenched the shackle hangers into the frame. Almost always with a shackle reversal. Keep your job simple and use the existing hangers.

Stock springs and shackles and perches that are as close to the axle as possible are about all you can do to keep it low. If stock springs and 31s are giving you pause, you are in for a major surprise with SOA and 35s!